


Something Wicked this Way Comes

by Star_Going_Supernova



Series: Inky Eyes, Golden Heart [9]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Coffee, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, I like my "villains" to be more than just "muahahaha I'm evil!", Protective Henry, Worldbuilding, demon!Henry, friendly conversation, here comes trouble, references to The Demon Who Loved, some minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 22:06:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15082718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Going_Supernova/pseuds/Star_Going_Supernova
Summary: There’s something coming. Something dangerous, something cruel, something powerful. Henry can feel it.





	Something Wicked this Way Comes

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been working on this since January. ~~_AAAHHHhhhhhhhh_~~
> 
> I fully intend to work on the second parts for both Consequences and Renewal now that this is done. My biggest problem right now is that my summer job takes up a lot of time and I don’t have the energy to write on my days off. I will get them done, though, _I swear._

It was a strange day indeed when Henry couldn’t be found in the studio. Even stranger still when Joey finally stumbled across him through sheer luck, standing in the empty secondary lot on the side of the building.

His head was turning this way and that in tiny increments as he listened very carefully for a sign of what he’d picked up earlier that morning.

“You should go back inside,” Henry called over his shoulder. “Something’s coming.”

“We’re all worried,” Joey said, walking closer to him despite his words. “You’ve never done something like this before.”

“Never had reason to. Joey,” Henry gave him a look, hoping his friend would listen to him for once, “please. I don’t have time to explain, but I’m pretty sure there’s at least part of a legion on their way. It’d probably be best to send everyone home, before things get messy.”

To his immense relief, Joey finally nodded. “Okay. Okay, I’ll tell them to get out of here.”

“Oh, but things are just about to get interesting,” an unfamiliar voice said.

Henry immediately shoved Joey behind him, ready to act but not yet transformed. “Get inside,” he told him.

“Don’t take one step, Mr. Drew, or there’ll be… _consequences_.”

“Henry?” Joey whispered. His frantically beating heart seemed to calm on its own as Henry blindly reached back and wrapped his hand around Joey’s wrist.

“I won’t let them hurt you,” Henry promised lowly.

Joey nodded, “I know.”

“Such faith,” the voice called out, “and in a demon, no less.”

Barring his teeth, Henry said, “Show yourself, coward, before I have the chance to get _really_ pissed off.”

The voice laughed, harsh and mean. “You heard him, ladies and gentlemen. Show the rebel what he’s won.”

And without further ado, dozens upon dozens of demons appeared, armed and decked out in armor.

Henry and Joey stared out at the veritable sea of enemies.

“That’s a lot of demons,” Joey whispered.

“Yeah.”  
  
“Can you take ’em?”

Henry grinned at him, showing off his fangs. “ _Gladly_. Now get inside.”

No one tried to stop Joey as he retreated, and for that, Henry was pleased. Didn’t mean he’d show them mercy if it came down to it, but it was still the principle of the thing.

Once everyone he cared about was in the same place, Henry silently cast protection over the studio, even as he called into the ranks, “Should I feel honored that such a large number was summoned up for little old me?”

A demon relatively close to him sneered, and he took great pleasure in stomping in his direction, pulling the oldest human trick of faking out in the book, yet still making the soldier jump in place.

“It’s not often I come up to personally deal with troublemakers,” the voice said—which the more Henry heard it, the more familiar it sounded, though he still couldn’t quite place it. “But you’ve managed to catch my attention, so here I am!” And with a great burst of light, the Devil himself appeared at the front of his legion, directly across the parking lot from Henry.

Ah. That explained why Henry thought he recognized the voice. It’d been a long time since his up-close-and-personal encounter with the Devil after winning his Duel, but that sort of conversation wasn’t easily forgotten. It also explained how demons could show up unhindered on earth— the perks of being in the Devil’s personal legion.

“You don’t look very afraid,” he said, blatantly eyeing Henry up and down. “In fact, if the notion wasn’t completely absurd, I’d say you appear to be ready to actually fight us.”

“Funny. Here I thought you said I’d caught your attention, and yet you clearly know nothing about me if you think I’d just give up.”

The Devil frowned. “Who are you, then, to think yourself so superior? Tell me your name and kneel before your lord, and I’ll give you a quick death.”

Raising his chin, Henry said, “I kneel to no one, and you are not my lord.”

Snarling, the Devil crouched a bit, clearly getting ready to lunge at him.

To Henry’s glee, the legion cried out as one in shock as he transformed fully, something they apparently hadn’t been aware he was capable of. He slid the blindfold from his face, though he kept his eyes shut. “Do it,” he dared the Devil. “Try and attack me. For however fast you might be, I will be able to look at you faster.” The power that never left his eyes burned and crackled, lashing out in hidden electric-blue fury, ready to take tainted souls and wipe them from existence.

“Aztrayos?”

Henry watched with his aura as the Devil dropped his manic expression and defensive posture, stepping forward with something like confusion on his face. “Aztrayos, the little one who defied me—is that you?”

Taken aback, Henry blurted out, “You remember me?”

Even as the legion whispered about him being the freak, the Demon that Wasn’t—a title he’d grown somewhat fond of since the Devil had unknowingly bestowed it upon him—and the runt who was meant to have died up here many cycles ago from lack of soul consuming, a beaming grin spread over the Devil’s face. “You should be dead,” he cried, “and yet, here you are, still disrespecting me! And you were right—you’ve somehow managed to avoid eating even a single human soul!”

He laughed, and it wasn’t the dark and cruel laugh from earlier, but a genuine one, with the sounds of what most would call happiness and surprise.

The demons around the Devil looked around at each other in panicky confusion, and Henry didn’t blame them. He felt a bit like he was in a very strange dream or something.

“And… you’re okay with that?” Henry asked.

There was movement, then, too fast for the legion to track. A painfully concussive boom—inaudible to mortal ears—rattled their teeth and sent their armor ringing. Their auras burned from the force of it, stung by a power they couldn’t fathom. When they looked again—at the rebel demon, the Demon that Wasn’t, the freak they’d come to kill—they expected to see a decimated corpse, mere leftovers of an unfortunate creature who pushed the Devil too far.

Instead, they saw their lord motionless in front of an entirely intact Aztrayos, his hand stretched out in front of him as though ready to wring the neck of the lesser demon. And Aztrayos, quiet and calm, simply said, “Don’t.”

The Devil’s face contorted with a combination of rage and glee. “What are you?” he asked, and even the legion could hear his frustration at not knowing.

Henry grinned, showing off his fangs. “I’m just Henry. That’s what I go by now.”

“No, no there has to be something else—no demon has ever saw fit to stand ready to fight me.”

With a shrug, Henry returned to his human form, in all his sweater vest and bow-tie glory. “Maybe ’cause I’m not standing ready to fight you. I’m standing ready to fight _for them_. My family. That it’d be against you is inconsequential. I’d go up against anything and anyone to protect them, and that makes all the difference. From my understanding, demons typically don’t have anything to fight for.”

He didn’t move as the Devil’s eyes flicked back and forth between his own. “Aztrayos—”

“Henry.”

“—Henry, then. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone like you.”

“That’s great. Now leave my studio alone.”

Smirking, the Devil said, “I will, on one condition.” He waved his hand, and Henry watched in satisfaction as the legion vanished. And then he snatched up Henry’s wrist and spun on his heel, teleporting the both of them.

• • • • •

In between one blink and the next, Henry found himself going from the overgrown side lot of the studio to the back of a line in a little coffee shop in—Paris, if his aura was to be believed. Amusingly enough, the Devil was looking at him as though he expected Henry to be impressed.

“I’m not corrupted,” Henry reminded him. “I can teleport up here just as easily as you can.”

Instead of his face falling in disappointment, the Devil leaned forward a bit. “So it’s true, then? You suffer from no hindrances? You are, in all ways, at full power in your own body?”

“Don’t get any ideas,” Henry said, painfully aware of the direction this conversation could go from there. “Try anything, and I’ll impale your heart with a Spyre Blade and scatter your ashes among the stars.”

“You have a Spyre Blade?”

Henry raised an eyebrow. “I can go anywhere in the world I want without hindrance. _Of course_ I have a Spyre Blade. I’d even show it to you right now, but, well… there’s a time and a place, and this is _neither_.”

At the sound of a throat clearing, they both turned to the counter. The poor girl standing on the other side squeaked in alarm, stiffening with a distinct deer-in-the-headlights look. Normal humans weren’t capable of distinguishing a demon in human form from any true human, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have self-preservation. The combined power of the literal Devil and a formidable demon would be enough to jumpstart most people’s fight or flight instinct.

The Devil leered, obviously pleased with the girl’s reaction.

Smacking the Devil’s arm just as he would when Joey needed to tone it down, Henry said, “Stop it.” Without waiting for a response, he turned and headed for one of the empty tables towards the back of the shop.

After only a few minutes of waiting—as much as Henry would’ve liked to ditch the place, he wasn’t willing to risk his friends’ safety to the Devil’s wrath—a cup of coffee clinked down in front of him.

He eyed the Devil as he slid into the seat opposite him. Neither spoke, and Henry was content to watch steam curl lazily into the air.

“The cracks. How did you get them?” The Devil leaned over the table, his eyes flickering back and forth between Henry’s unscarred cheeks. “Marks like those—you lost something.”

It was strange, to be in a situation where he could simply regard the Devil. How much to tell him, Henry wondered.

“You remember my eyes?” he finally asked.

The Devil laughed. “Do I remember the fire with which you looked at me, little one? Oh, Aztrayos… I don’t think I could ever forget someone like you.” He grinned, and Henry could see through his human-form, see the burning void of his eyes and the gleaming ivory fangs, see the inhuman horror of his beauty. “You and I, we’re very similar.”

Immediately, Henry said, “I’m nothing like you.”

With a fierce snarl, the Devil asked, “You love them, do you not? Your fragile, mortal humans? How many demons do you think can say they ever loved someone with the strength of all creation?”

His aura snapped out at Henry’s, coiling around it in an unbreakable hold. Its poison hurt against his lack of corruption, and Henry’s aura thrashed to try and free itself. But the Devil was relentless and only surrounded him more. For a long, panicky moment, Henry was sure he’d disintegrate in its malevolence—and then the searing pain stopped.

Beneath the outer shell—hardened and diseased and hot-cold—the Devil’s aura was blinding in its brilliance.

 _“Demons weren’t always emotionless,”_ something whispered into Henry’s mind. _“You, Aztrayos, are_ ** _very_** _much like me.”_

The aura didn’t release him, but it loosened enough to not feel suffocating.

Across their cracked little table, humans bustling around them, completely ignorant of the danger sitting in the back corner of the Parisian coffee shop, Henry stared into the Devil’s eyes and did something no one had been capable of doing in a very long time: Henry understood him.

“I love them,” Henry said quietly, acceptingly.

A tiny smile twitched across the Devil’s lips. “Call me Lucifer,” he said, “and tell me about the fire in your eyes.”

The tension drained out of the atmosphere as they both paused to drink from their cups.

“It started, I suppose, with a hydra,” Henry said, shifting into a more comfortable position for his story, “and you could say that it ended with my best friend.”

Lucifer’s eyes gleamed, human and bright.

• • • • •

There wasn’t much that Henry wouldn’t tell Joey these days, what with his greatest secret having been revealed, but no matter how much he tried, Joey simply couldn’t understand certain aspects of his friend. He would never know the power Henry felt in his other forms, he would never know the pain Henry’s eyes had brought himself, and he would never know the empty ache of wondering who and what he was.

It felt good to be able to speak of such things with one of his own kind. Surreal, and perhaps a bit unbelievable, considering who he was talking to, but good nonetheless. 

“And how is it that you’re still alive? Without eating souls, you should’ve died years ago.”

“That’s for me to know, and you to _never_ find out.”

If Henry wasn’t mistaken, Lucifer almost sounded fond when he said, “You have no respect for your elder, when you should be trembling in fear before me. I could kill you.”

“So could a lot of things. You’re not special,” Henry told him.

The Devil shook his head, chuckling. “Very well. I can’t fault you for guarding your secrets. Tell me this, then: how did you come up with your human name?”

“Ah, well, y’see—I saved this dog, okay? And his name was Henry, and I decided I liked it.”

A bark of laughter escaped Lucifer. “I simply cannot figure you out, little one. You have more than lived up to the title I gave you. Aztrayos, the Demon that Wasn’t… you seem like the type to know what your name means. Did you stick around the crystals long enough for them to tell you?”

“I didn’t have to wait.” Henry shrugged. “I asked mine what it meant, and it told me.”

“Of _course_ you did.”

Henry considered the Devil for a long moment. Lucifer’s aura still hadn’t pulled away from him. “Why are you doing this?” he finally asked, knowing his companion would understand.

With such a young human form, it was dangerously easy to forget that the demon in front of him was as Ancient as they came. Something in his eyes turned old at Henry’s question. “I’ve lived for a long time, little one,” Lucifer said. He turned his head to stare out the window.

Life continued on around them.

“It became boring,” he continued after a moment. “Same old, same old—trick humans out of their souls, torture lesser demons, cause some chaos up here—over and over and over. I’ve seen and done it all. But you… you’re new, you’re different, you’re _interesting_.”

Lucifer laughed suddenly, loud enough that some of the humans turned to look at him. Henry could see in their eyes the effect the Devil’s human-form had on them.

“It’s a good thing for you that you spoke up that day. Before you said anything, I was planning on claiming you as my own.”

Henry eyed him for a moment before shaking his head. “I don’t want to know what that means. But why didn’t you?”

“Perhaps some part of me wanted to see what would become of you. Do you remember what you said? _I won’t_ , in the most belligerent tone anyone had used with me in an age or two. Like you couldn’t stop yourself from telling me I was wrong.”

“I did more than just tell you,” Henry said, spreading his hands in a modest shrug. “Here I am, proving you wrong with every day I don’t die.”

Lucifer nodded slowly, and almost absently said, “Almost makes me wish I had claimed you anyway, though I think it might be a moot point. If I had kept you from this life, you never would’ve become this.”

Henry shuddered at the thought. He’d been Henry as much as he was Aztrayos for so long now that he could hardly imagine being one without the other. To have never become Henry sounded like a terrifying nightmare.

In an effort to change the subject, he asked something that he’d been wondering about for years now, “Did you know what was different about my eyes when you saw them?”

With a tilt of his head, the Devil conceded the new topic. “Yes. I was familiar enough with an angel’s soul to feel the similarities, even though I had no idea something like that could manifest in a demon’s eyes, of all places. How did you discover the origin, if you will, of your abilities?”

“I put the pieces together after I saw that there was an angel in my ancestry,” Henry said.

He’d been so young when he found out, but Henry still remembered the shock-disbelief-curiosity he’d felt when the crystal answered his question. An _angel_. It shouldn’t have been possible, but the crystals were never wrong.

“An angel in your—” Lucifer practically collapsed backwards, shaking his head— “Oh, I never stood a chance, did I?”

• • • • •

When they finally returned to the studio, it was early afternoon. The sun cast their shadows down in front of them, and like demon children playing without malice—seldom as it happened—they let inhuman features bleed into their dark reflections.

Horns jutted out from their heads, wings arced out of their shoulders. Henry stretched his shadow’s topmost pair upwards, feeling a pleasant phantom ache in his back. The Devil, not about to be outdone, extended all three pairs of his own like a strange halo around his body.

With a small smile, Henry shook his head, and in the blink of an eye, his shadow looked human again. After a beat, so did his companion’s.

“This was… fun,” Lucifer said, sounding incredibly surprised about it. “Everyone’s far too scared of me to ever just _talk_. Became a bit boring a while back, to be honest, but it wasn’t like I could change anything without compromising my reputation.”

Thinking of Joey, Henry nodded and said, “Everyone needs someone to keep their feet on the ground. Especially a person as egotistical as you.”

“Disrespectful child. No different from all those years ago. That day,” Lucifer started, watching Henry closely, “what made you talk back to me the way you did?”

Henry thought for a minute, leaving them in comfortable silence. “I guess I was tired of giving up parts of myself to demons who didn’t deserve them.”

Lucifer scoffed, though not entirely meanly. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were part Celestial instead. You certainly have the attitude of one.”

“I’m not part _anything_ , much less part angel. That’s not how it works.”

“No. No, you’re not, are you? You’re far better than them. Aztrayos. What exactly did the crystal say it meant?”

“It’s a derivative of the name for the Titan god of the stars.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Rolling his eyes, Henry recited, “Aztrayos: he who walks the world beneath the stars and loves them as they are.”

Leaning closer, Lucifer told him, “Y’know, my name is connected to the stars as well.”

“ _Everyone_ knows that.”

“Oh, you’re no fun.” Lucifer kept going right over Henry’s muttered, _“You weren’t sayin’ that a minute ago,”_ to ask, “So, how best to part ways? If you were any other demon, I’d expect you to kneel before me, but I think I know better by now not to waste my time waiting.”

Henry grinned. “There’s only one way to say goodbye to someone who might decide he’d rather kill you than take you out for coffee next time he sees you.”

“And what way is that?” Lucifer asked, crossing his arms and nearly looming over Henry.

“Simple. You leave ’em wanting more.” With an impudent smirk, he turned his back on the Devil and walked fearlessly into the studio, listening to Lucifer laugh brightly behind him.

• • • • •

There was a crowd of employees waiting to greet him as soon as he walked through the door.

“Henry!” Joey cried, throwing himself at him. “You’re all right! What happened out there? We saw you do—” he made slashing motions with his hands— “something, and then you left with one of them. And then you came back, and—really, what happened?”

“Well. I _think_ I just had a coffee date with the Devil.”

With an outraged noise, Sammy threw his hands up in the air, spun on his heel, and stalked off. “Only you!” he cried. “Only you!”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos to browniefox on tumblr for inspiring me with their [fanart of Henry](https://star-going-supernova.tumblr.com/post/175020057366/browniefox-no-matter-how-much-you-run-from-your)!
> 
> Let me know what you guys thought, if you liked the Devil, or if you’d ever like to see him again! He was actually a lot of fun to write. :)


End file.
